Rich culture, delicious food and stories from Afghanistan

10/06/2014

I am not a fan of seafood. I can handle tilapia and some milder fish if seasoned properly, but despite all the goodness of salmon I usually abstain. We rarely had fish in land-locked Afghanistan and once we moved to the U.S. seafood was too expensive for a refugee family. It is funny how our childhood experiences influence our choices as adults.

For special occasions in Afghanistan my family did buy fried fish from the kebabee (kebab maker). We ate the fried fish with Afghan nan and salad at picnics. Oddly, for dessert we had jilabee, a fried dessert believed to counterbalance the fish. Jilabee is made by frying thick sugar and flour syrup slowly poured through a funnel into hot oil to form circular coils.

Nowadays I learn about seafood in the oddest places. For instance, I practice Qigong with a group of elderly Chinese women near San Francisco’s China Town. To pass time we talk about food, bargains at Walgreens and gardening. Their food talk revolves around seafood delicacies, and their disdain for lamb. They’ve taught me quite a lot about how to catch crabs in the Bay without being fined, where to find the best fish and the health benefits of seafood.

So at a potluck I cautiously tried my friend Mitra Modarressi’s salmon dish. At first I was more attracted to the beautiful fresh dill that blanketed the salmon, but I quickly found that the salmon was deliciously seasoned with cumin, oregano just the right flavors for me. The cumin subdued the salmon smell which keeps me away from salmon.

Mitra is not sure where the recipe originated but I decided if an Afghan were to invent a salmon dish they would be well served to use this recipe. I made this dish for Jeja (my mom). Not only did she like the dish but she gave me thumbs up to post it on the blog. Naturally I needed her endorsement before I could share this with all of you.

So, for you non-seafood lovers give this “almost Afghan” recipe a try. You can serve the salmon hot or cold. I suggest the Afghan potato and chickpea salad, shor nakhod, as a side dish. The flavors go very well together.

Roasted Salmon with Dill and Cilantro

Almost Afghan

2 ½ lbs. boneless salmon

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground pepper

2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh dill

½ cup parsley chopped

lemon slices

In a bowl mix olive oil, cumin, oregano, pepper and salt. Rub mixture on skinless side of salmon and marinade as early as the day before or at least for an hour.

Pre-heat oven, 450 degrees.

Line broiling pan with foil. Bake salmon on foil with skinless side up in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes per inch of thickness at thickest part. When done you may serve immediately or allow to cool. Serve at room temperature. Place the salmon on a serving dish long enough for the salmon, garnish with dill and cilantro and serve with slices of lemon.

Serves 6

* I have slightly modified Mitra’s recipe to my taste and for ease of cooking.

09/25/2014

Katie (co-founder of this blog) and I had a lot of fun applying recognizable food terms to Afghan dishes: aushak became Afghan dumpling, falooda became Afghan sundae and sabzi became braised spinach.

Wanting to lose nothing in translation, we fretted over qorma and kebabs since there is no easy way to classify these dishes for a westerner. Most people know kebabs as meat on skewers, but in Afghanistan kebabs take many shapes and forms. Do piazza is one of these hard to classify dishes. It is considered a kebab in Afghan cuisine, but I am calling Do piazza a stew since it is served with its broth after being slow cooked until the meat is tender. The broth brings the key flavors as it adds an extra dimension to the meal when poured over the meat, the lentils and the bread. Do piazza (which mean two onions) is one of my favorite Afghan dishes because it is healthy, hearty and easy to serve as a meal. No side dishes needed. I recently acquired the recipe from Jeja (my mom) fulfilling a reader’s request for this recipe. Do piazza will become a go-to recipe for my parties and busy days of running around since it is also perfect for the slow cooker.

I used beef here but you may substitute lamb. Give this one-bowl dish a try; it will be a hit with the kids. Even my daughter Aria liked the dish.

Stew meat cleaned and cut into 2 1/2-3 inches so it can hold up during the slow cooking

One-Bowl Afghan Meat Stew

Do Piazza

3 pounds bone-in beef stew cut in 3-inch squares

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves, diced

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 1/2 tablespoons salt, divided

4 cups water

1 medium red onion, cut into thin rings

2 cups white distilled vinegar

1 cup yellow lentils

Lavash bread

Wash the beef thoroughly and let the water drip or pat dry with paper towel.

In a heavy bottom-stewing pan add olive oil and heat on medium-high. Add the yellow onions and fry until golden brown, around 15 minutes. Add the garlic, mix well and cook for another 3 minutes while stirring. Add the meat, one tablespoon of salt, turmeric and black pepper to the pan. Mix well by stirring for a couple of minutes. Add the water, cover and bring to a boil, around 10 minutes. Turn down the heat to low, cover and let it simmer until the meat is tender and easy to cut with a fork. Depending on the quality and size of your meat, this could take 1 ½ to 2 hours. Keep an eye on the stew so the broth doesn’t dry up. If the water reduces too much, add water, half a cup at a time. When the stew is cooked, there should be around 2-3 cups of broth left.

While the meat is cooking, mix the vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt in a bowl, add the red onion and let it marinate until the meat is done. Make sure that the vinegar covers the onions, if not add more vinegar. You can do this ahead of time, the flavors of the onions will develop better the longer it marinates. The onions will be used as garnish.

Onions marinating in vinegar

In a small saucepan, add the lentils, 3-4 cups of water and ½ tablespoon of salt, cover and bring to a boil. Cook on medium heat until the lentils are soft, around 20 minutes. Drains and return to the saucepan. Add the 1 1/2 cups of the beef broth. Simmer for another five minutes.

Large yellow lentils works best

Blanket a large serving platter with one or two lavash bread. Place the meat, the lentils and the onions in piles next to each other on the lavash bread, pour one cup of the broth over the meat, lentils and bread. Cut the rest of the lavash bread in pieces to be served on the side of the dish. Do piazza is mostly served by itself. It is a lot of fun to use your hands to eat this dish.

09/18/2014

Helen Saberi has written one of the most popular Afghan cookbooks, Afghan Food and Cookery, which I discoved when I became interested in Afghan cooking. Helen married an Afghan man in 1972 and lived in Afghanistan for eight years until she had to leave due to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Helen, originally English, spent her eight years in Afghanistan learning about Afghan culture; food, people and the Dari language. I was really honoured when I received an email from Helen praising my blog. Naturally, I asked Helen if she would share one of her wonderful recipes with us. Below we get best of two worlds, an Afghan inspired trifle recipe. I think my European readers will finally enjoy a recipe with measurements in grams.

By Helen Saberi

The name of Afghanistan’s capital city would not normally conjure up thoughts or visions of trifles. However, this recipe was inspired by my husband Nasir Saberi who asked me to devise a trifle recipe with an eastern flavour for my Trifle book; and to name it after the city in which he was born and brought up. An alternative to the yoghurt topping could be firni.

Kabul Quince and Yoghurt Trifle

2 medium quinces

110 g sugar ( 4 oz.)

juice of ½ lemon

pinch of ground cardamom

18-24 amaretti biscuits

500 g Greek strained yoghurt (17 oz.)

¼ tsp saffron

1 tbsp. rose water

110 g caster sugar (4 oz.)

½ tsp ground cardamom

toasted flaked almonds

slivered or ground pistachio

crystallized rose petals

Peel, core and slice the quinces thinly. Put into a pan and add water; which should well cover the quinces. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, turn down the heat and simmer until they are just soft. (You may have to add more water if it reduces too much.) Remove the quinces with a slotted spoon from the pan and set to one side.

Now add the sugar to the water in which the quinces were cooked and stir to dissolve. Add the lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes until syrupy. Remove from the heat, add the cardamom and return the quinces to the pan. Leave to cool in the syrup.

Place the amaretti biscuits in the bottom of a glass bowl and cover with the quinces. Add just enough of the syrup to lightly soak the amoretti.

Now make the yoghurt cream. Dissolve the saffron in the rosewater and beat into the yoghurt. Mix in the sugar, more or less according to taste, and add the cardamom. Mix well. Spread the yoghurt cream evenly over the quinces and decorate with the almonds, pistachios and rose petals, according to your fancy.

Note: If quinces are not available, which is highly likely, pears softly poached can be substituted or even tinned pears can be used. Not quite the same but still good.